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A GPS Based Heads Up Display System for Driving Under Low Visibility Conditions

Max Donath, Craig Shankwitz, Heon-Min Lim

January 2000

Report no. Mn/DOT 2003-03

Abstract

This research describes the design, development, and evaluation of a Heads Up Display (HUD) system for drivers of ground-based vehicles. A Conceptually ideal driver assistance device for low visibility conditions, the HUD projects visual information into the drivers' forward-looking visual field. Most researchers concur that the dirvers' forward-looking visual field of view is the most essential input for carrying out the two primary driving tasks: lane keeping and obstacle avoidance. Researchers developed the conformal augmented HUD as an intuitive adjunct that provides a high fidelity reconstructed image of essential aspects of the visual field superimposed on the actual field of view. The HUD was programmed to draw appropriate perspective projections of the road boundaries as seen from the driver's viewpoint and as calculated from dynamic position measurements provided by Differential Global Positioning Systems (DGPS). The research measured and analyzed mismatch error between the projected and the real road boundaries, and performed experiments using five Hz DGPS. Results showed that the current system can draw the superimposed images with errors less than 0.5 degrees of visual sight angle while the vehicle moves at various speeds along the test track. Keywords-heads up display, GPS, field of view, visibility